Superpark 13 at Mammoth: Day 1

A chosen group of shreds made their way to Mammoth, CA this week to take part in Snowboarder Magazine’s Superpark 13 presented by Gatorade. Although plagued for days by unfortunate weather, builders brought it together to create features meant for the fearless and riders brave enough to dare. Though it’s still early on in the Superpark stages, a sneak peek at what’s left to come quickly emerged as riders began breakin’ some off for themselves all before noon.

The features at Superpark are always well, super. There is a reason it’s not called mini-park, or training wheels park, but Superpark; a place containing jumps to project you straight into 2010. Riders were treated to a variety of options built by Mammoth, Bear and Loon Mountain park staff, but it was Loon builders Brian Norton, Tom Peplinski, Noah Wildermann and Jay Scambio who created a jump that made most other park features in North America look like molehills.

To no surprise, riders were quickly divided into side-liners and standouts as they began settling into the park on some of the “smaller” jumps. Massive moves burnt into my memory card include Bjorn Leines’ back 1 japan, Chas Guldemond’s stalled out slowly spun front 3’s and Pat Moore’s consistently cutting edge moves. Local knowledge seeped from riders like Lonnie Kauk and other transplants who can be found mutilating the normal main park on a daily basis, but the freakishly large creation had still yet to be hit.

By far the most intimidating thing I had ever seen loomed to the left of the chair, tucked between the trees, and readily waiting to launch riders into space. East coast local and Loon lapper Brandon Reis commented that peering down the runway was like staring off the edge of the empire state building, which I translated into the word gigantic. After whispers wandered throughout the park, riders sacked up hard and began to sesh the beast.

Previous Superpark standout Chelone Miller let loose his inner lab rat and pointed it toward the Loon feature, somehow coming out completely unscathed. Before long, the pressure pushed onto the riders lurking in the shadows, bringing out the other freaks who also enjoy going gigantic. Canada’s creature Dustin Craven got in on the action, playing with danger for a few hits of his own, but it was Jonas Carlson who silenced all with his ballsy moves. Opting for psycho over safety, Jonas put down a back seven on the beast calling it, “the most air he’s ever gotten in his life.”

The level of riding on day one may have surpassed expectations, but there should be nothing less expected from this seasoned pack. Stay tuned to snowboardermag.com for updates throughout the week including photos, videos and daily notes on the happenings at Superpark 13.